I’ve seen some pretty creative birdhouses in my lifetimes, including one that was a replica of a Victorian style house and another that was an actual boot. But the Google-inspired birdhouse has to be my favorite in terms of creativity.
If you’ve ever Googled a business or direction someplace, then you’re probably familiar with the iconic place marker that indicates location in Google Maps. It looks like an upside down drop of water that’s reddish orange.
Well, designer Shu-Chun Hsiao took the idea and created a birdhouse out of it.
I find the concept clever in so many ways. Seeing these birdhouses down in the streets makes the virtual a reality. It also indicates a visual marker for the birds who can navigate urban or rural environments and know the birdhouses as a constant.
Enough of my gushing. Here’s the reasoning of the design at Shu-Chun Hsiao’s website:
Google Map had created a remarkable landmark icon, showing the sites on its street views. To search for a landmark with online google map, we can scroll to zoom from the satellite, soon we’ll be able to wander on streets, virtually.
Birds, have the most real experience of google map. Birds can fly through the city, through streets. A birdhouse becomes their destination as google map does.
The project is aiming to put numbers of birdhouses all over the city for bird to accommodate. The iconic symbol will become a navigating landmark for the flying birds.
At this point, it doesn’t seem like you can buy your own Google marker birdhouse, but I still enjoy this idea.
Here are some more images via the Project Google Birdhouse Flickr page.
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